Bright
sun burned Larissa’s eyes as she helped her father and two older
sisters with rock picking. It seemed as if her dad always picked the
hottest day of the spring for the odious task, and every year she
wondered where all the rocks came from. Acres of uneven, dirty
countryside lay before them, and they had to remove all the rocks
laying in the field so the spring planting could begin.

Both
of her sisters had left home to go away to college, but they returned
at her father’s insistence for the wretched rock removal tradition.
She would be leaving in the fall for college herself. Taking time off
to decide what she wanted to do for the rest of her life had only
prolonged the inevitable. She would have to leave the peace and
tranquility of her family’s home and move into the dorms as her
sisters had. They had scrambled away quickly, but not Larissa.